A recent meeting held at the Vitebsk Region Media Centre was dedicated to high art, which established itself in Vitebsk over thirty years ago and annually delights residents and guests of the city. We are talking about the International Festival of Modern Choreography, or IFMC, the oldest in the post-Soviet space and one of the most prestigious in Europe.
– The festival is eagerly awaited by both the audience, choreographers, and dancers. This is evident from the numerous applications received from collectives and the buzz at the ticket offices, – noted Gleb Lapitsky, General Director of the Vitebsk Culture Centre.
Gleb Lapitsky also emphasised that IFMC draws attention to Vitebsk as a centre for the development of elite art and proves that world-class projects can be implemented in our city.
What will this year's, the thirty-fourth festival, be like? What will delight and surprise modern dance enthusiasts? This was revealed by the project's creator and the soul of IFMC – Marina Romanovskaya, Deputy General Director for Special Projects at the Vitebsk Culture Centre.
This year, a national competition will be held. It is gratifying that the diaspora of dancers in Belarus has significantly grown in recent years, making an increasingly vibrant presence.
– Over 40 works were submitted for the preliminary selection, with 25 ultimately chosen, demonstrating a commendable standard. Some pieces were pleasantly surprising, for instance, a production in the style of the theatre of the absurd, – said Marina Romanovskaya.
The guest programme will feature performances by the MOSCOW Ballet, presenting the results of a contemporary dance laboratory and the performance "All Roads Lead North"; the Evgeny Panfilov Ballet Theatre with two productions: "The Prince and the Pauper" and "Romeo and Juliet"; the KANNON DANCE Contemporary Dance Theatre from St. Petersburg with the ballets "The Unutterable Cube" and "Heartlessness"; and the Belarusian State Youth Theatre with the performance "Touch. A Little Story About What's Inside... And That's All". Incidentally, the latter was staged by Vitebsk choreographer Diana Yurchenko.
The jury, headed this year by Konstantin Kuznetsov, soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus and People's Artist of Belarus, includes representatives from North Macedonia, Croatia, and Italy.